TBOLC, Week 7

This week was a pain in the neck.

On Monday, we had our final PT test, and I did surprisingly well. I maxed out the pushups (75 for 100%; I did 78) and the situps (76 exactly for 100%), and ran the two-mile in 15:17 for 82%. I was a little disappointed in my run time (I ran it faster at the beginning of the course), but all things considered that's a respectable score for my future commander to see.

After that, we met up at the HEAT, the "Humvee Egress Assistance Trainer." They put five people in a rotating Humvee cab, flip you upside down, and then have you get out quickly. Just like in basic training, I was nervous at first, but afterward I thought it was pretty fun.

One thought though -- since the H in HEAT stands for "Humvee," and "Humvee" itself is just the pronunciation for another acronym (HMMWV), I think a more appropriate name for the trainer would be "HMMWVEAT," meaning High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle Egress Assistance Trainer." Say that three times fast.

In the afternoon, we presented group project OpOrders to cadre for a grade. Unfortunately, my group got a captain who loved talking about our topic, and we didn't get out until 5:00.

On Tuesday we had our four-mile brigade run in the morning, followed by convoy operations PowerPoint slides the whole day. Again, we didn't get out till 5:00.

Wednesday we caught a break, though it started off dismally. We watched an hour-and-a-half PowerPoint presentation about disassembling and reassembling the M2 before we could actually put hands on the things. Unfortunately, we ran out of time before everyone could get a try, so it was really quite senseless.

In the afternoon, we did the same thing with the M240B, but since we'd all had a lot of experience with the things in BOLC2, the instructors let us out at 3:00. Good thing, too, because my legs needed the rest after the past two days.

On Thursday morning , we geared up and learned about the "snatch and grab" method for clearing a damaged vehicle out of an ambush site. In the afternoon we practiced reflexive fire.

Friday we did a convoy rehearsal. Under a beautiful blue sky, we divided up into three groups and sat around for just about the whole morning, minus about 20 minutes of actual training.

In the afternoon the class briefed the major about the upcoming week's "Red Ball" operations. Basically, he was checking on us to make sure everyone knew about the dangers of each site we'll be at.

After going through each site, which took forever, we were treated to one of the Major's famous weekend safety briefs. They're fun, but by the end, we were just ready to get the heck out of there. He didn't finish until after 6:00.

Next week we've got our capstone field exercise, the "Red Ball."